Google brings interactive cards to YouTube in hopes to replace annotations

If you’ve ever uploaded your own YouTube video and tried to use the “annotations” feature, you’d know that it’s very limited in functionality. That’s why today, Google has announced the addition of interactive cards to YouTube on both desktop and mobile. The company explains that the new feature is an evolution of annotations, which will allow creators to inform viewers about other videos, merch, playlists, websites and more.

The cards feature definitely looks more visually attractive than annotations, and is much less intrusive. Instead of having a big text bubble pop up while you’re watching a video, the cards tab can be expanded by clicking on a button towards the top of the video. There are currently a few different types of card layouts to choose from, including merchandise, fundraising and more. If you’d like to compare and contrast each layout, you can check out some specific examples by following the source link below.

Google explains that the goal with cards is to one day replace annotations entirely:

Because cards work across mobile and desktop and give you more flexibility to share what you want, our goal is to have these eventually replace annotations. But this will happen only once they can do everything annotations can do today, and more. Until then, we’re looking forward to your feedback on cards, including what you want them to do for you in the future.

If you’d like to take advantage of the new feature, you’ll find a “Cards” tab in your Video Editor that will let you create and edit them any time you’d like.